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Chinese Retail's Latest Rip-Off: Ikea

Part of a movement to cash in on established brands

By Tim Karan,  Newser Staff

Posted Aug 1, 2011 5:20 PM CDT

(Newser) – Why create knock-offs of specific items when you can knock off an entire brand? A warehouse store in China called 11 Furniture has adopted almost everything from Ikea—from staged rooms and minimalist furniture designs to tiny pencils and an in-store restaurant. It's part of a rapidly growing market in the country for stores that copy entire brands' shopping experience, reports Reuters.

"Customers have told me we look like Ikea," says an 11 Furniture customer service rep. " If two people are wearing the same clothes, you are bound to say that one copied the other." The phenomenon of pirating a whole brand first came to light last month when an American blogger uncovered fake Apple stores in China. " Typically there are a lot of fake products," says one retail analyst. "Now we see more fakes in the service aspect in terms of [faking] the retail formats."

A furniture store in China has copied nearly everything about Ikea's shopping experience.
A furniture store in China has copied nearly everything about Ikea's shopping experience.   (Getty Images)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 7 comments
cheongyei
Aug 2, 2011 12:23 AM CDT
Of course they copy successful foreign brands.  The look of original Chinese designs, from cars to planes to clothes, is abysmal.  They have no taste, they only know how to make copies.
Colonel_Sanders
Aug 2, 2011 12:00 AM CDT
When I was in grad school I heard about two Chinamen who were busted for plagiarizing an essay. They were confronted by the instructor (a friend of mine) She asked why were their papers identical? The Chinamen responded that it was natural for them to turn in identical papers as they thought so much alike. They were enraged when they received zero credit for their papers. The American University was so dependent (and is even more so today) on Chinamen and their tuition money, that they were permitted to continue on in the class and ultimately graduate. Now they are somewhere in the American workforce. celebrate diversity.
BlueAyez
Aug 1, 2011 6:42 PM CDT
IKEA's owner was on Jon Stewart a month or so back. I hope he's not as arrogant as he came across. Let's see how other countries like their patents ripped off.

 
China • Apple • piracy • Ikea • bootleggers • Apple stores • 11 Furniture

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